Super Powers Collection

Eight-inch-scale dolls and action figures with interchangeable cloth outfits became the industry standard in the 1970s. The toy Company Mego was well known for making licensed eight-inch-scale action figures and cornered the market for the decade. Before 1984, The Mego Corporation held the license to produce the DC comics “World’s Greatest Super Heroes” toy line from 1972 – 1983. With that, Mego followed Mettel’s massive success of the Barbie doll format and was only a few short years shy of the three and three-quarter-inch Star Wars action figure phenomenon.

Mego also simultaneously held the license for Marvel comics, producing a line of compatible eight-inch-scale Marvel action figures. Both were marketed by Mego together under the same name, “World’s Greatest Super Heroes, ” visually appearing together in the same advertisements, under the same brand. Once branded together in unity and compatibility under the Mego umbrella, times changed, and a competitive divide between the two comic giants officially separated the licensed characters indefinitely. Today, a concept that may seem unachievable displayed a much simpler time and would begin to permanently change around 1984.

Mego eventually filed for bankruptcy in 1982. Around this time, both marvel and DC comics were in the market to license their characters to separate toy companies to avoid competitive conflicts of interest. DC struck a deal with Kenner based on their massive success with the Star Wars merchandising toy line. Marvel comics eventually closed a deal with Mattel and launched the “Secret Wars” toy line in late 1984, as a competitive reaction to Kenner’s Super Powers Collection launch earlier that year.

Following the three and three-quarter-inch action figure success of Star Wars and G.I. Joe A Real American Hero, Kenner focused an upgraded emphasis on mechanical superpower action and traditional comic artwork. The Kenner design team innovatively developed hidden spring-action mechanisms within the figures to trigger an action feature. If the action figure’s legs were squeezed together, it triggered an arm movement motion and vice versa depending on the unique super ability of the action figure. With some figures like Hawkman, a unique mechanical action of Hawkman’s wings would move, simulating flying. The movement physically emphasized each figure’s “superpower,” promoting interactive play features to each Super Powers action figure. With only one mechanical super action feature available per figure, for instance, a super running leg movement for Flash or karate action punch, Robin toped off the playability with this toy line.

Due to the highly innovative mechanical “super action” features of its time, over the years, collectors may find that some of the action figures’ arm and leg joints have become loose and wobbly. Many figures that include mechanical leg movements like Flash and Aquaman may now become challenging to display upright due to the age and ware of the aged mechanical feature.

Since the superpowers characters originated from comics, naturally, each action figure was packaged with a mini-comic detailing the character’s adventures. A total of three vehicles were introduced in the first series along with one Hall of Justice playset and a now very hard to find in complete and good condition, collectors case. The batmobile was the most popular of all vehicles in series one, followed by the Lex-Soar 7 airship and the disputably “useless” Superman’s Supermobile. Once the Super Powers Collection line was off and running, DC Comics and Kenner took to slapping a Super Powers logo on anything merchandise-related they possibly could. Anything from lunch boxes, T-shirts, puffy stickers to the trendy 1980’s underwear icon, Underoos, the Super Powers logo was almost everywhere.

There would eventually be three-wave releases of the Kenners Super Powers Collection. Series one launched in 1984 with the primary base characters of the DC comics catalog. Series two was introduced in 1985 with an additional line of new characters and vehicles added to the lineup. Topping off the series 1986, the third wave of action figures and vehicles was released and unfortunately saw minimal success. Like many other popular toy lines, series three of the Kenners Super Powers Collection is now the rarest and most sought-after collectibles of all three series.

To assist in the Kenners toy line merchandising effort, naturally, DC comics introduced a new series of traditional comic books, released under the superpowers name. The first issue of the Super Powers comic series hit stores in 1984 and featured legendary comic book artists Jack Kirby, Carmine Infantino, and many more.